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Wilmington – Two buses rolled up to Rodney Square on Sunday on a special mission.

That mission was to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, signed into federal law July 26, 1990.

Both buses were bedecked with the message of the anniversary, in colorful graphic wraps including the simplest summaries of the historic federal equal-access law: “Disability rights are civil rights” and “Separate is never equal.”

One bus arrived from Philadelphia on Saturday, spending the night on the Herman M. Holloway Sr. Campus of the state Department of Health and Social Services near New Castle. The next stop on its cross-country journey would be Elkton, Maryland, heading to Washington, D.C., for a commemoration there.

That one was dubbed the “Road to Freedom” bus, part of the ADA Legacy Project, designed to celebrate both the anniversary and contributions of people with disabilities as well as their allies by preserving the history of the disability rights movement and educating the public and future advocates.

The second decorated bus was its local cousin from DART First State, the public transportation program of Delaware Transit Corp., an operating division of the state Department of Transportation.

DART CEO John Sisson, DelDOT’s ADA coordinator John McNeal and Wilmington City Council President Theo Gregory were among the dozens of Delawareans at Rodney Square to welcome the national entourage.

Aboard the Road to Freedom bus were Yoshiko Dart, whose late husband is considered the “Father of the ADA,” disability rights activist Janine Bertram-Kemp, whose late husband also was involved at the national level and Tom Olin, considered the nation’s foremost recorder of disability rights history and documenting the bus’s whistle-stops across the nation.

The women’s late husbands, Evan Kemp and Justin Dart – both tireless advocates for passage of the landmark legislation – sat beside President George H. W. Bush as he signed the act into law. That historic moment was pictured in the graphics on the “Road to Freedom” bus.

The cross-country commemoration, especially on a handicap-accessible bus, is something both men would have loved, their widows said.

“This is my husband’s hat,” Dart said, pointing from the one in her hand to the one in the photo.

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ADA CELEBRATION: Yoshiko Dart holds a hat that belonged to her late husband, Justin Dart. Dart wore the hat when he sat next to President George H.W. Bush as he signed the Americans with Disabilities Act 25 years ago Sunday.(Photo: DAMIAN GILETTO/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

“People in the disability community are so excited about the ‘Road to Freedom’ bus,” Bertram-Kemp said.

“People with disabilities historically have been seen as subhuman,” she said, sharing that her husband’s neuro-muscular disease that surfaced when he was 12 did not prevent him from becoming a lawyer, but did keep him from landing a job.

Bertram-Kemp, who has used a power chair since a spinal cord compression 11/2 years ago, called disabilites part of the normal human range of lifre, which may come with aging or injury.

“We need non-disabled allies,” she said, but decision-making should involve those affected, regardless of the type of disability.

The true freedom for the disabled will come when those with disabilities make their own choices, not have choices made for them by systems that “treat them like crops” to be managed for profit, Bertram-Kemp said.

That idea is has become the newest slogan in advocacy for those with disabilities: “Nothing about us without us,” she said.

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ADA CELEBRATION: Janine Bertram-Kemp said Sunday that those with disabilities should make decisions about needed services, saying, “Nothing about us without us.”(Photo: DAMIAN GILETTO/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

Bertram-Kemp praised Delawareans’ work toward equality for those with disabilities, singling out activist Daniese McMullin-Powell of Christiana.

McMullin-Powell, who decades ago became Delaware’s first paraplegic to become scuba-certified, now chairs the state Council for Persons With Disabilities, as well as coordinating the grassroots ADAPT Delaware organization that organizes action to ensure civil and human rights as well as personal freedom of those with disabilities.

She called the ADA’s anniversary is worth celebrating.

“We fought for years and years and years for it,” she said. “The ADA was landmark legislation.”

She recalled camping out before and being present when the Supreme Court made its 1999 ruling in the Olmstead case, that affirmed the ADA. “Fifty of us slept on the sidewalk,” she recalled with a smile.

And they celebrated when the court ruled in favor of two women who sued to fight their confinement to an institution despite mental health professionals’ determination they could live in a community-based programs.

“That was amazing,” said Powell, McMullin-Powell said, adding that states now are required to ensure that those with disabilities get needed services in the most integrated setting possible.

“Separate,” she said, “is never equal.”

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Daniese McMullin-Powell, who chairs the state Council for Persons with Disabilities and coordinates the grassroots ADAPT Delaware advocacy group, joined Sunday’s celebration welcoming the national “Road to Freedom” bus at Rodney Square on the 25th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.(Photo: DAMIAN GILETTO/THE NEWS JOURNAL)

But there was plenty of support as dozens of Delawareans turned out to commemorate the event, including , there was plenty of support as dozens of Delawareans turned out to honor the ADA and those aboard the bus.

“This is wonderful,” said Kathleen McCool of Brandywine Hundred, who has cerebral palsy. “I’m proud that we have a role for civil rights for people with disabilities.”

“We’ve come a long way,” she said. “More and more people are out like us, living in the community, showing people we are here and have a right to be here.”

“I was so happy to be there because it was a really big deal,” he added. “As time goes on, it becomes so much more meaningful.”

That was a sentiment echoed by John McNeal, who serves as ADA coordinator for Delaware’s Department of Transportation.

“I’m hoping the next generation will live the promise of the ADA,” McNeal said.

While some people still remain awkward around people with disabilities, he said, “once we’re all in the same room together, we always find we have more in common.”

McNeal, who uses a wheelchair due to spinal cord injury in a motorcycle crash, said his injury “was three weeks after this bill was signed.”

Helping celebrate its anniversary, welcoming the national bus and visiting with its passengers has “been an absolute blast,” he said.

Another strong supporter from the state at Sunday’s event was Rita Landgraf, secretary of the Department of Health and Social Services.

“What I really appreciate was the level of engagement,” she said, noting not only the welcome at Rodney Square, but also DART’s ADA-decorated bus and its own entourage leading and accompanying the national celebration bus to Maryland.

“This turned out really well,” she said. “This civil rights movement has come a long way.”

Contact robin brown at (302) 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com. Find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @rbrowndelaware.